I’m always looking for an easy recipe to make. When I came across this Slow Cooker Chili Mac recipe from “koolaidmoms” (whatsfordinnermoms.com to everyone else), I immediately thought to myself that it would be a mistake for me not to give this a go. After all, I have been searching for slow cooker meals because they are so much easier to make and I don’t have to stand in front of the oven cooking up something that takes up almost 20-30 minutes of my time.

This recipe claims that the difficult level was easy. Let me tell you that this recipe should be re-printed as SUPER EASY! I have tried this recipe twice: First time I sort of fumbled around the kitchen a little and did my absolute best to follow the recipe as-is so my prep time went from 10 minutes to 20 minutes (give or take) and I was chatting up a storm with my wife. The second time, my prep time was reduced down to about 12 minutes because I tweaked the recipe a little to my own liking and I was alone to work on this recipe myself.

The actual recipe can be found on their website where you can find a whole bunch of other easy-to-make recipes: Slow Cooker Chili Mac Recipe

For clarity, Koolaidmoms has not paid me to write this review. I have voluntarily wrote this review because I was so excited to share how delicious and easy this recipe was to make.

MY VERSION

I didn’t tweak the recipe too much from the original but it took a little time for me to think how I wanted this to taste the way I wanted it to. Also my slow cooker is only a 4 quart so if I added too much then it would have overflowed. All I did differently was:

1 lb. of lean ground beef.

I made sure 1 onion was the biggest onion I could buy.

I used 1 (28oz) can of diced tomatoes, not sauce. I like the consistency and flavour of tomatoes instead.

I used half a can (28oz) of tomatoes. They didn’t sell a 16oz can.

I only used 1 yellow pepper. Has a sweeter taste.

Next time I will use the corn. I forgot to buy it both times!

Definitely used sour cream and cheddar cheese.

Crackers! It’s great with crackers!

So this is what it looked like when everything was thrown into the slow cooker. Almost filled to the rim.

It might have looked like a soupy mess but the consistency is exactly how it should be. When the elbow pasta was added, some of the liquid ends up disappearing.

After adding the sour cream and cheese, this is the result:

Wifey only had cheese Ritz crackers in the pantry but it was really good!

So this recipe is an A+ in my books and something that I know I can eat every so often. I even ate this when it was very humid and hot outside so I can honestly say that this is a recipe that is not just for a cold, chilly night. It is a hearty dish that tasted twice as good when we had it for leftovers the next day.